Duffers Guide to South London Schools Admissons Required...

[MsPickle]

Hi

My PFB will be starting school in September 2014. We live in Lambeth with a mix of schools around us. I need to really start thinking about the options and scheduling some visits (more making DH know that he needs to find some diary time...). My friends are a mix of the super worried who've been visiting/sorting places since babies were tiny and the last minute panickers. Private isn't an option. I know that the deadline for application is January (and we may move house which would change catchments but that's looking unlikely at the moment).

What do I need to do?! Where do I start????

Honestly I'd find the nearest x number of schools to your house that you are eligible to apply to with distance being the criteria. Check their admissions criteria carefully then visit those and then put htem in order of preference.

There is a shortage of reception places so concentrate on getting a place at a school that you can get him to.

And then? I've read some threads on here about a London preference system-what do I need to know about that?

And do I need to look out for prospective parent evenings or should I make contact with schools directly? I know that it's density catchments so our nearest school could be ours or we could be 2 metres or so out depending on the intake.

I feel like such an arse-both my SIL are primary teachers but outside London and it seems to work differently.

Look on their website, there will be a guide to choosing a school in Lambeth. It will tell you the procedure and the last offered distance last year (though afaik catchments are still shrinking). There is a shortage of spaces in the south of the borough I think but not in the north.

Everywhere has a preference system, it just means you list the 7 (is it 7 you can put down I can't quite remember) you would accept down in order of which you would like most as No 1 and least prefer as the last.

Most schools have open days/evenings where you can go and visit, usually published on their websites for Sept/Oct/Nov.

For each of your nearish schools look carefully at the admissions criteria of each one and rule out any that you are highly likely to get into - for example if they have a faith criteria that you are not eligible for.

I would put down as top the 2 schools you really want and use the rest of the spaces as ones that based on their last intake you would get into otherwise you run the risk of being offered a school miles away type of thing.

Page 32 of this document should give you some idea of how oversubscribed each school is- However, this is not a definitive guide, as it will change each year.

There will be another booklet published very soon for 2014/15 admissions which will explain how to apply and give the data from this year's admissions. There are some significant changes to the admissions procedures next year, so use the old booklet as a rough guide only.

tethersend do you know what the changes are (roughly)?

Only scan read so far but this is bloody brilliant-just what I need!

Thank you everyone-I'm sure I'll be back with more questions...

Random, I was under the impression that schools were to become their own admissions authority next year, but this may not be the case or may not actually have a significant impact. I am glad tiggytape is here to clarify!

There may still be bulge classes added and there will be one national offers day.

So 'significant changes' may not be completely accurate, sorry.

OMG can you imagine if each school starts doing their own admissions the whole situation is a nightmare as it is

The catchment areas can change quite a lot year to year so look further than just 1 year ago. things like recent outstanding ofsted reports can change a school from 'so unpopular everyone leftover gets sent there' to 'impossible to get into' within 1-2 years (yes i'm talking about you, jessop). Rosendale and Streatham Wells are basically impossible to get into if you're not within 400m so don't torture yourself.

Buy a map and a ruler and measure the direct distance between any schools within about 2km and your house to check actual distances. Look at the council's admissions brochure for the last 2 years (the old ones are usually findable if you google) and study the furthest distances for places given over that period to get a sense of your chances; remember to check if they have increased their intake as well, lots of Lambeth schools have recently.

Also check the school distances and admissions brochures for neighbouring boroughs - you might find the nearest achievable school is actually in Southwark or Wandsworth depending on where you live.

Ring each potential school and get the dates of their autumn open days and go on as many as you can so you can build up a picture of current teaching styles and gauge differences in quality. Things hot up after October! Take a lot of notes (you will forget important details!). Try and figure out what your 4 year old needs to help them thrive in a school environment. That's probably more important than the teaching standard (unless that's seriously bad). The style of the open day will tell you as much as the content. Is the head teacher available and helpful? how do they deal with questions? do you get to see teaching in action? how do the kids look and behave? chat to the pta - do they feel involved/listened to?

Finally, remember there are always waiting lists and there's usually a huge shuffling process at the end of summer term where everybody finally takes their best/worst offer and discards the other places they've been holding so you're always in with a small chance even if catchments have shrunk, people also move around during term. Haunt the school office and keep ringing up the council to find what number you're being held on. Officially where you go to preschool shouldn't affect where you get offered a place but from personal experience I do wonder if that's true... if the school know and like you and your child it can't hurt. Also, on a practical note, if you know the preschool you'll already have 9 month's experience of what the school and its culture are like which is much more than one 2hour visit.

Ah, thanks for clarification tiggy.

There you go Random- just me scaremongering

... can tell you. ahem, itchy trigger finger!

I should also clarify: i don't mean where you go to preschool can affect your first offer. That is entirely done by computer and the council. But in my experience, it seems it may affect how quickly you move up the waiting list (although it shouldn't)

Thank you all again.

Rosendale is our nearest-people near us have got places but reading these resources posted/anecdotally it depends on the sibling situation next year. For the others-the visits will be interesting, trying to balance fashionable/popular against our gut instincts, I wonder whether we'll follow the crowds. Am very aware of how tight places are, but anywhere that could make sense for us to move to has the same problem!

I also have a 2012 baby and the recent reports of the baby boom last year made me realise that it'll be just as tight then. I wonder if Lambeth were counting on their leaflet campaign about the shortages would convince more people to move out...

It's such a minefield. My SIL (deputy head) says her preference as a teacher would be a school with new SLT coming out of special measures/poor grading as the level of motivation is often higher (she's taught in a range of settings).

yes it's often good to catch a school on the way up as it were. it's possible Jubilee may be one of these - a few years to go yet, but it has lovely facilities and is motivated, as you say. Rosendale has been top of the pile in the area for a while now! There's a school i think is called Julian's that seems to get a lot of interest to the west of you, it's opened a couple of outposts to service the middle class families in Streatham-ish area. I didn't go to see it myself though. Might Jessop be within distance for you?

tiggytape - i absolutely agree. didn't try and fiddle a place at all. just pretty surprised to go from way down the list to an offer right at end of term and trying to work it out - but perhaps that's just a sign of how big the shuffle can be once everybody accepts a place.

Building extra capacity also makes a difference - extra places in one school lead to larger catchment one year, maybe the next, but then more siblings fill the places and it reduces again. A lot depends on which schools are told to add bulge classes in your dc's year - I'm the other end of Lambeth but same problem.

I'm just very glad I filled in 6 schools on my form, as somehow we got #3 a mile away, presumably as #2 has no 3rd class this year but did for the previous two years. I didn't bother looking round as thought we'd never get in anywhere other than our first two choices.

oh god yes definitely fill in your full 6 potential schools with places you could bear going to! nothing to be gained by 'just putting down the only place we love' that you have very little chance of getting... you may get an offer for somewhere in the arse-end of Lambeth that nobody else wants to go to...

Some VA schools do have a preference system for children who attend the nursery - my DD's CofE primary gave us the same number of points as children attending out of parish churches despite our being complete heathens (she is going to a different primary).

So, watch for that if you are looking at VA schools - as far as I have heard, not a single child got in to that school via distance this year.

Look round as many schools as you can - I soon found that there was 'outstanding' and 'OUTSTANDING' and some 'Needs Improvement' schools appealed more than the former!

Definitely use all your choices and if you have a dead cert that you don't care for and the others are all a bit of a gamble, then put it down as option 6. Better a school you hate on your doorstep than a school you hate over an hour away!

If your child is at a nursery with an after-school club, then ask their opinion. The staff at DD's pick up from 5 local primaries and have known the kids for years. They were able to advise me on which ones were a best fit for DD.

Not that it makes a huge amount of difference as we only stood a chance of getting one of our options - but had one been vastly more suitable than another than I would have listed it higher and pursued a waiting list place.

MsPickle - depending on which side of Rosendale you are on you might benefit from the easing of catchment areas which is likely from the opening of the new 2-form entry primary at Dunraven, and the extending of Julian's (though heaven knows where class comes into that - if anything presumably the extending of Julian's widen's the catchment to a greater diversity of housing).

You might also benefit from the new Southwark Free Schools - I think there is one called Judith Kerr opening near Herne Hill? Have a look at the Southwark Admissions book as well as the Lambeth one.

The majority of Lambeth primaries are good, and getting better. Many also have a high turnover of children so whereas initial entry to Streatham Wells, for example, is extremely tight many 'in-year' places become available from Yr 1 onwards because Lambeth has quite a high level of mobility.

Do you have any basis for getting into a faith school? They usually have different admissions criteria - worth reading up on for faith schools in your locality, details will be in the LA booklet.

There is HUGE movement on the waiting lists - everyone above you on the list will also be on the lists for many other local schools, so every time someone gains a place at another school the lists of about 5 others go down. PLaces also become available within the first term, it is quite common for a family to move away over the summer or else decide to go private and not tell the school at which they have accepted a place.